Vowing Islamabad's unfaltering commitment to fighting terrorists despite epic floods challenge, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Friday said the Pakistanis do not want Talibanization of the region. "Notwithstanding the challenges, nobody should presume that in the face of flood disaster, we will lose focus on the war against terrorism and extremism," he said in a speech at Asia Society.
The democratic government, he said, has invested huge political capital in this war. "Our exceptional achievement was to forge a broad-based national consensus against terrorism and violent extremism," said the foreign minister, who is representing Pakistan at the United Nations General Assembly session in New York.
He said a national debate in Pakistan's parliament and media has led to emergence of a consensus on the issue. The Pakistani people who have gone through bombings by militants do not want Talibanization of Afghanistan because what happens in that country has a fallout on Pakistan. "We have given this struggle national ownership. Today, there is no doubt in the minds of Pakistani people that it is our war. We will not let the gains slip through our hands."
Pakistan is fully aware of its responsibility as a front line State in this global struggle. The price of losing this war is far too dangerous to imagine, he said. Pakistan is the biggest victim of terrorism. It has lost thousands of innocent civilians and soldiers and incurred losses up to $50 billion to the fight against terror. "Our way of life is at stake; our very survival is at stake," he declared. Pakistan is determined to "protect our society, protect our ethos, and protect the world at large, from this menace."
Qureshi told the Asia Society that his country is still hosting over three million Afghan refugees, saying their presence on our soil translates into a security linkage. "Pakistan has legitimate stakes in Afghanistan's peace, security and stability." There is no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan, he said. "The military element might be essential, but it cannot provide sustained peace and a long-term solution. An Afghan-led and Afghan-owned reconciliation and reintegration is the only way forward. We fully support President Karzai's initiative for national reconciliation and reintegration." He said Afghanistan would find permanent peace only when all segments of the Afghan society become stakeholders in a democratic and representative polity. And equally importantly, the problems of drug trafficking and gun running need to be addressed, he noted.